Soul Venerable (Re-written)

The two returned with their haul: Kenji pulled two giant crocodile corpses which were modified as bags.

The corpses have it’s internals completely removed, one of it filled with brick-shaped dense clays, while the other is stuffed with six-legged crocodile’s most precious body parts such as their hearts, whiskers, et cetera.

The moment they reached their part of the campsite, Kenji took off his clothes and took a bath under the rain to clean himself from mud corpse, blood, brain juice, or the gore that had stuck on his body after intense combat. 

As for Shion, she disappeared somewhere during their return trip. Kenji knew his boss liked to act mysteriously so he wasn't surprised.

Half an hour later, Shion returned with Murasaki Ayame. Her rain-repellent artifact is too useful to leave alone so she activates it to cover their area while Shion immediately went to work with her Mobile Furnace. 

The mobile furnace is not digitized, it isn’t carried along with Ayame’s car into the [Cloud Storage]. It was left behind when she dematerialized the jeep a while ago.

She pre-processed the large amount of dense clay, shrinking their volume further before putting them into the dimensional storage of her mobile furnace. It was also the same with the beasts’ body parts. 

During that moment, Ayame brought out the military jeep once more and so, Shion’s faction can sleep or rest in that car.

According to the agreement, Shion faction can now rest and recuperate. Thus, they took their free time leisurely while Sumire’s faction stood guard.

…

In the military jeep, Shion is meditating while her core reactor is still active. The heat practically raises the average temperature of the car, allowing her faction members to stay warm. 

However, Ayame chuckled at the fact that Shion had turned into a heater.

But Shion didn’t mind, she needed to reveal weakness because she had just returned from an intense battle. Of course, her energy reserve is dangerously low, but it isn’t to the point of cripplingly low. [Combat Configuration] has an obscene amount of energy expenditure rate and refining materials also uses up some energy, so she’s using this chance to recuperate openly after secretly switching the core reactor’s fuel cells.

While her body was motionless from ‘meditating’, her crystal processor was actively exchanging telepathic thoughts with Kasumi.

< It is as you have expected, main soul. Kubikiri Kurogane and Kubikiri Shirogane are truly members of the Nine Master clans of Hartina Kingdom. They are not body doubles to fish out the Kingdom’s hostile forces. >

Just as there are four clans in Galatreon, there are ten powerful clans as the core pillars of Hartina Kingdom, revered as the Ten Master clans. After Murasaki Shizuku (Mordred’s late wife) brought her clansmen out of Hartina Kingdom, the Ten Master clans became the Nine Master clans. 

However, Galatreon’s relationship with the Kingdom did not deteriorate. In fact, because Murasaki clan is the top clan of Galatreon, its culture is more or less similar to the Kingdom. 

For example: in Galatreon, women are treated equal with men. 

This matters a lot because Galatreon has four clans and three of them, the Richtofen, Delcroix and Al Arsy clans, are from the Land of Sand and Fire. There, female is synonymous with the word ‘slave’. Either they are servant, sex slave, or comodities used to trade between factions. 

Since the majority of Galatreon four clans are native to the Land of Sand and Fire, having a culture where women are not treated as objects means Murasaki clan’s presence is truly influential in Galatreon. 

And so, the Kingdom and Galatreon desired good relations due to the lack of fertile land in the extreme south while the Hartina Kingdom received mutual defense agreement. Galatreon are given raw resources, while the Kingdom received various support, be it technological, military, or political, thus the two countries could be considered as sisters.

That being said, Shion was slightly aware of the internal politics of the Hartina Kingdom and the Nine Master clans. Even if her intelligence is ‘outdated’ after her ‘death’, she could piece together some information that was already known as a foundation for her deduction.

“The Kubikiri clan have a deep lineage. Their ancestor is one of the Braves during the 2nd Generation Hero, Kubikiri has a relationship with the progenitor of sword-path…”

During the previous battle, Shion used [Active Soul Sonar], an investigative method of soul-path containing the profundity of sound-path and information-path.

The effect is simple, which is detection of lifeforms through soul presence. However, it contains information-path profundity, it has a secondary effect similar to one of the most well-known information-path magic spells: [System Interface]. Of course, an ‘impure’ investigative method like this couldn’t be as powerful as pure information-path spell, so it has a weakness of weakened investigative power as the distance traveled further.

Which means the closer the targets, the more information [Active Soul Sonar] could extract from the target.

Shion used that chance to use an omni-directional investigative method because she wanted to confirm whether the Kubikiri siblings were fakes or real. A single-target investigative method is far more powerful compared to an AoE ones, but that would alert Sumire and he faction.

As one of the Nine Master clans, they are truly protective of their clansmen. 

Just like each Murasaki clansmen are protected by an Artificial Intelligence unit, the Kubikiri clan have their own methods of protection, and one of them uses body doubles as substitutes. 

This isn’t unique, because the Nine Master clans are the core pillars of Hartina Kingdom. Any powers hostile to the kingdom would take the chance to erode their comprehensive strength by any means necessary, even if that meant assassinating their second generations.  

That being said, Shion had confirmed that both Kubikiri siblings are in fact, present with their true bodies, not clones, avatars, puppets, energy projections or body doubles.

< During the moment where Nyx fought against Sumire’s team, we’ve sensed the unique soul undulation from Shirogane. Her unusual condition of being easily influenced by emotion might’ve been a mutation of her soul… >

When Nyx fought against Sumire’s team, he was openly using investigative methods on his own, but that’s perfectly understandable because he was their foe. If for some reason Shion tried to use an investigative method on Sumire’s faction, that would raise suspicions, especially if she made a move against the Kubikiri siblings. 

“Indeed. I have [Transcendental] attainment in soul-path, but I have yet to encounter her soul mutation in my long years of extraplanar adventure. It seems that when my true body ‘died’ under the hand of Lamost, I fell to [Quasi-Transcendental] attainment. This is troubling...”

Attainment levels are separated into 6 realms.

Ordinary, Master, Grandmaster, Legendary, Exemplary and Apex.

Each realm meant significant progress towards understanding the truth of the said path. Rank 0 would usually be [Ordinary]. One of the prerequisites of rank 1 is having [Master] attainment, and for rank 2, its [Grandmaster] attainment.

At [Grandmaster] attainment level, a cultivator has become truly masterful at their path, allowing them to utilize the effect of their path to the point of being an art. One could generate ‘intuition’ that will aid them in various situations.

For rank 3, they are revered as Legend because they possessed [Legendary] attainment in their path. At this point, Legends are capable of producing or mimicking the effect of other paths up to a certain extent.

For example, [Mirco-Soundfield Forge] is the usage of sound-path to produce the effect of refinement-path. Without legendary attainment in sound-path, Shion wouldn’t be able to design the said method. The same could be said with [Death by Incineration] and [Death by Sensory Overload] that Nyx used a while ago, it was the method of necro-path which produces the effect of fire-path and information-path respectively.

To have a successful ‘Protogenic Ascension’ and advance towards rank 4 Paragon, one must have [Exemplary] attainment to grasp the world’s Dimensional Laws. At this stage, one is not suppressed by Minor Elemental Wave or other non-law-level phenomenon. 

As for [Apex], they are usually the attainment level of elite rank 6 Sovereigns, the peak of a world or a civilization. Sovereigns can use the dimensional law fragments to aid them in using their methods. For example, a fire-path Sovereign can use the law fragments of fire in the environment to freely cast [Solar Flare], a rank 4 fire-path magic spell, without spell catalysts.

That’s right, for magic casters, [Apex] attainment level has the benefit of ‘Magic Material Exemption’. Of course, some rank 5 epic spells usually still use precious resources and this ‘exemption’ doesn’t work for rank 6 methods. 

This was the reason why Shion doesn’t require sound-path resources to activate most of her methods, because she’s using the natural law fragments of the world to activate them for her. 

Still, this world followed the law of Conservation of Energy. One cannot conjure energy from nothing. Even if Shion could use the dimensional law fragments of this world to substitute ‘spell’ resources, she has to provide the energy like mana or since she uses ninjutsu, soul essence.

That being said, [Transcendent] attainments are referred to as such because they transcend [Apex], having an understanding upon the said path better than the World’s Will itself. There’s no such thing as secrets in front of transcendents, as long as one’s path attainment reaches this level, one can use any method known in the world. 

Perhaps, in this world, only the gods possessed [Transcendental] attainment in their primary path.

“It’s unheard of for someone with [Transcendental] attainment to lose them… but it’s common for soul entities to lose memory, especially after receiving significant damage. When biological lifeforms receive wounds, their fleshy body would bleed but soul entities have a chance of their soul structure crumbling. Since loss of memory is one of the mildest consequences, then losing one’s attainment could be one of the greater losses…” Shion immediately analyzed her condition.

Whether she is a [Transcendent] or a [Quasi-Transcendent] on soul-path matters a lot, because it contains the secret of her quasi-immortality. Without having [Transcendental] attainment in soul-path, her truesoul loses its indestructible property.  

Which means, Shion couldn’t resurrect with a 100% success rate if she died in this ‘life’. However, despite knowing she has lost her quasi-immortality, Shion wasn’t panicking.

“The last contingency for a Holy Crusade has yet to be activated. There’s also my true body’s Soul-path True Inheritance before he died, I can easily recoup the loss of soul-path attainment if I can have them..”

As Shion entered a deep contemplation regarding her condition, Kasumi helped her in deducing Shirogane’s condition with the available intel.

< If main soul can get close to Shirogane one more time and activate [Active Soul Sonar] in less than 2 meter away from her, we might be able to understand the correlation between her soul mutation and how is she easily be influenced by emotion… >

“It’ll be hard to accomplish that. Sword-path cultivator are almost immune to assassination because they have an absolute short-range detection. I reckon she must’ve a type of ‘true sight’ with a range of 5 meters. Even if I have the rank 6 killer move [Faux Soul Configuration] active on me, I can still be detected through sight.”

Technically, the sense of ‘sight’ is detection through the reflection of light in one’s retina. For cultivators, they do not necessarily have to ‘see’ with one’s eyes (reflection of water surface, mirror, et cetera is still possible). There are various loopholes in [Faux Soul Configuration] because it’s primary function is not to be invisible from all spectrum of senses, but from the detection of the World’s Will. 

Being ‘invisible’ from most direct senses is merely the byproduct. 

For example, Shion’s body can cast a shadow into the ground when she walks under the sun. If a detection method is based on ‘shadow’ or the ‘absence of light’ in an area, then Shion can somehow be detected through the changes she made on the environment. 

Or, if an earth-path cultivator uses detection through the ‘pressure’ of the earth that her heavy body releases when she walks, she could easily be found.

If she wants to achieve true stealth, she’ll need far more than [Faux Soul Configuration]. 

Rank 0 cultivators are limited by their methods, thus they couldn’t sense her other than sight. They were also incapable of instantly coming up with new investigative methods because they do not have [Grandmaster] attainment level, which could generate intuition when solving a problem or [Legendary] attainment level, which allows them to up a certain point, imitate the effect of other paths.

For rank 2 or rank 3 legendaries, they will come up with methods of detection sooner or later. Thus, although technically Shion is ‘invisible’ from most of their senses, the loophole will be found out sooner or later.

That being said, a sword-path cultivator is different compared to the typical cultivator. 

For rank 1 martial artists, although they cannot engrave a permanent defensive spell on their person, depending on their cultivation technique, they will eventually have [Reduced Force Field].

It is a force field of which their senses can expand from their bodies into the area. The standard range of [Reduced Force Field] is around 1 to 10 meters. In its effective range, the martial artist has an ‘absolute sense’ upon what’s happening in that area. 

A ‘True Sight’, so to speak.

The special quality of sword-path cultivators is that, due to their cultivation method, they can have an rudimentary form of [Reduced Force Field]. Its effects are weaker than the real one, but at least it allows them to have a ‘true sight’ earlier at rank 0.  

Thus, if Shion gets too close to Shirogane, then she’ll have a high chance of knowing what she's doing towards her.

“I lack the cultivation base to use a higher form of soul-path investigative method so using them with my current level will cost soul foundation further. The best way to get close to her is by…”

< Beast Wave? >

“That’s correct. We can fabricate a Beast Wave which pushes the team to the brink… but we’ll put this task on the lower priority. There’s no need to fabricate an attack since we’ll be having our chances later during the war against the greenskins.”

< True, it’ll take a significant amount of combat power to fight against them. Then, main soul should also prepare a ceramite weapons and armors as soon as possible. >

“You’re right. WIthout you, my combat power fell by 50% but we can’t always stay together. I’ll find the material to refine a ceramite equipment set. In the meantime, I’ll cultivate my spiritual force.”

< Understood. I will stand by and guard... >

…

Countless motes of purple lights, which were telepathic thoughts, collided against each other, producing new telepathic thoughts rapidly.

This is a process of deduction in Sumire’s sea of consciousness. Thanks to the large amount of information fed by Alanis, she could earnestly start a countermeasure for Shion who she felt is the most dangerous amongst the three on Shion’s faction.

Murasaki Ayame’s artifacts can only be countered by the amount of ammunition she has and Kenji almost has no weakness to speak of, but the one who held  the ‘reins’ on their movement is their captain, Shion.

Without having a clear understanding of Shion's personality and habit, it’s only a pipe dream for Sumire to defeat her.

Just as the Great Archmage Mordred once said, ‘Know thyself and know your enemy, and you shall not fear the result of a thousand battles’.

Of course, Sun Tzu does not exist on Morgen World. The Great Archmage could plagiarize anything he’d like.

“Her bloodline power must’ve been the source of her great resistance towards wisdom-path methods. So this is what she meant by ‘lack of methods to extract information from her sea of consciousness’ a while ago. She’s almost immune to wisdom-path methods and the word ‘almost’ is used reluctantly because I have yet to determine her limit...

Her body also does not exclude heat, spiritual, soul and elemental fluctuation and couldn’t be found with telepathic thought sweep, giving off the impression of being immune to detection.

However, Alanis is an information-path cultivator. She excels in gathering information. 

When Shion engages in combat, her heavy body leaves a deep imprint on the earth, displaces the air around her, and produces body heat like Kenji. 

If Kenji’s presence is like a campfire in a dark starless night, Shion could be considered as a lighthouse, which means the heat is either a flaw of her bloodline, or that could be an effect of her body rune…” Sumire thoughts churned rapidly as telepathic thoughts are being expended.

There are all sorts of body runes, spells, or martial arts out there. Thanks to the world’s advancement on extraplanar travel, it is easy for rank 1 ‘official’ or rank 2 ‘lords’ to kickstart an extraplanar invasion on a minor plane, pillaging resources or inheritances on a large scale. Therefore it’s common to find mysterious methods previously unknown by the inhabitants of Morgen World.

“The heat could be a byproduct of her torso-slot body runes. However, it doesn’t make any sense. As an antimage, her priority should be concealment, not battle-strength augmentation. Assassins do not engage in direct battle…” 

There's something wrong with Shion’s combat style, that’s for sure.

“Her body is petite, it does not suit most martial weapons with medium to long range such as swords or spears, or even gunlances due to obvious reasons… The most suitable weapon for her is either daggers, or combat gloves so that she could maximize the benefit of her small size and high flexibility to fight within extreme short range. However, she uses her Soul Armament’s transformation ability to showcase her mastery of a large amount of martial weapons, which means she’s not a newbie in martial arts. She must be aware of her own strengths and weaknesses...”  

Then, she received a telepathic thought transmission from an existence that conceals himself in her soul, Nyx.

< Which means… She has, at some point, possessed a higher cultivation base. Otherwise, it does not explain her combat strength despite merely at the mid-stage of rank 0, right master? >

“Indeed.” Sumire did not get angry at her Spectral Soul’s interruption. In fact, she wanted to rely on Nyx because his insight usually allows her to optimize the deduction process. 

If before having Nyx, she has to expend 1000 telepathic thoughts to deduce something, she could suppress the number to around 400 or so thanks to his insight. This was a quantitative increase in her deduction capability because she has a limited amount of telepathic thoughts generation rate, even with her Malicious Heart that constantly provides for her. 

Just because one has a good ‘hardware’ that produces telepathic thoughts, doesn’t mean they have a good ‘software’ that could utilize them. 

A wisdom-path cultivator must not only have the ability to produce more thoughts than others, but also must know how to spend them wisely. Otherwise, they are merely idiots who can think fast. 

< Her combat style heavily relies on Soul Armament, but don’t get your hopes up, master. She also has some level of refinement-path attainment. Just as you have predicted, she’s either a chemist or an engineer in training. The battles against mud beasts and crocodiles couldn’t be a representation of her whole combat style. >

“That’s what I’ve thought too. If my deduction is correct, then she’s acting like Kenji, only using her common methods so that her real trump card is hidden. This is so frustrating…”

< Well… when wisdom-path is still new, the Great Archmage Mordred psychologically obliterated a lot of great mages with his profound understanding of their personal habits. It’s been 200 years now and it’s illogical if one does not prepare a countermeasure against wisdom-path cultivators > Nyx tried to console her. 

Sumire understood what he meant. During the week of preparation, the two entered a period of adjustment. Sumire can now access all of Nyx’s memories and thanks to that, she easily understood his points. She can trust Nyx because he is completely at her mercy, every single one of his inner monologues is transparent and visible. Thus, the relationship between the two have advanced into Nyx being the extension of Sumire’s will.     

That being said, Sumire actually felt better now.

“You have a point. Then, do you think she’ll act like a true assassin if she fights without her Soul Armament?”

< Yes, master. We lack the crucial intel of what’s inside her Mobile Furnace. However, we still have a method that is worth to try. >

Since Nyx’s inner monologues are transparent, Sumire immediately understood what he meant. 

“Wh-” Sumire revealed a flustered expression as she tried to suppress her sea of consciousness from producing telepathic lustful thoughts. “I can’t! N- not yet.” 

She wanted to curse Nyx for recalling her desire towards Shion’s body, yet he couldn’t be blamed as she was also thinking the same thing. 

< It’s a win-win situation, master. You have Alanis serving you secretly and Shirogane in the open. Why couldn’t you get another one? Isn’t having her in your harem will allow you to be safer? After all, she’s an antimage. Even if you can only become her sex friend, she’ll protect you in crucial moments. >

Thinking logically, Sumire felt Nyx’s idea wasn’t a bad one. “We have to determine wheter she’s straight or a lesbian first!”

Having strange sexual preferences in the Kingdom is frowned upon, but not forbidden outright. Although not many people came out openly, there are still quite a few. 

< Kenji must've had the same desire, but he did not make a move on her which meant something. And, isn't she awfully close to Murasaki Ayame? I have a hunch that Shion’s relationship with her is not simple. Physically, I think you won against Ayame a lot in terms of body shape alone, master. > 

At this point, her sea of consciousness automatically produces a significant amount of telepathic lustful thoughts. It was like a dam which has been broken, the ‘water’ has a great amount of momentum that it’s almost unstoppable.     

Breast shape and size? Sumire’s assets are obviously better than Ayame.

Waist and buttocks? Although Ayame has a slim waist and perky butt, they are not as sublime and curvy as Sumire. 

Sexual experience? Sumire wasn’t a master but she’s not weak at it. In fact, she has quite a few wisdom-path methods specialized in this aspect because she has to satisfy Shirogane with her strong physique, therefore she’s adept at sex herself, especially with the same gender.

The image of Shion’s flat chest and pink peaks, hairless nether regions, and pale body rune-covered skin suddenly resurfaced from her mind. As her sea of consciousness accumulated more lustful thoughts, she automatically began to logicize her sexual desire.

< Since she’s most probably immune to wisdom-path methods, there’s a command-path method that should be effective in this situation, Master. [Lust Crest], a derivation of [Command Seal] which could be engraved on a person and control them through their sexual desire... >

A complete blueprint of the [Lust Crest] including the resources and the method of engraving on the target’s body is transferred telepathically by Nyx.

“So if I engrave this heart-shaped [Lust Crest] on her crotch, I wouldn't actually have to fight against her...”

The thoughts began to sprout in her mind like bamboo shoots after a rain.